Once cheddar was 'Cheddar', a large, hard-pressed barrel of cheese made by a particular…

Method

Poach the fish. Put the fish in the frying pan and pour over 500ml of the milk. Stud each onion quarter with a clove, then add to the milk, with the bay leaves. Bring the milk just to the boil – you will see a few small bubbles. Reduce the heat and simmer for 8 mins. Lift the fish onto a plate and strain the milk into a jug to cool. Flake the fish into large pieces in the baking dish.

Hard-boil the eggs. Bring a small pan of water to a gentle boil, then carefully lower the eggs in with a slotted spoon. Bring the water back to a gentle boil, with just a couple of bubbles rising to the surface. Set the timer for 8 mins, cook, then drain and cool in a bowl of cold water. Peel, slice into quarters and arrange on top of the fish, then scatter over the chopped parsley.

Make the sauce. Melt half the butter in a pan, stir in the flour and cook for 1 min over moderate heat. Take off the heat, pour in a little of the cold poaching milk, then stir until blended. Continue to add the milk gradually, mixing well until you have a smooth sauce. Return to the heat, bring to the boil and cook for 5 mins, stirring continually, until it coats the back of a spoon. Remove from the heat, season with salt, pepper and nutmeg, then pour over the fish.

Assemble and bake. Heat oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. Boil the potatoes for 20 mins. Drain, season and mash with the remaining butter and milk. Use to top the pie, starting at the edge of the dish and working your way in – push the mash right to the edges to seal. Fluff the top with a fork, sprinkle with cheese, then bake for 30 mins. Make up to a day ahead, chill, then bake for 40 mins.

Recipe Tip

Different flavours

Seafood: Add 200g raw peeled king prawns to
the baking dish along with the poached fish.
Salmon & dill: Replace the smoked haddock
with 400g skinless salmon fillets, and use dill instead of the parsley.
Fish & vegetable: Add 100g each frozen peas
and sweetcorn to the baking dish before
pouring over the sauce

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Comments, questions and tips

This is a a fabulous pie. I've made it several times but I always adapt it.
It does however take longer than 40 mins to prepare.
I also tend not to make the butter sauce but instead make a sauce using cornflower as its base. I pot in a pepper and mushrooms and garlic into the pie. I've make this pie about twice a year.

amateurcook89

21st Aug, 2017

4 cloves of what? Garlic?

davect

25th Sep, 2017

Clove.

TeaTimeWithLucy

28th Jul, 2017

5.05

Really tasty meal - hadn't realised there are so many calories in just 1 portion however! Will definitely make again but substitute for semi-skimmed milk and less butter etc as others have suggested. I thought the eggs were a strange addition and if I make again I will probably leave them out - just as yummy without! The sauce would be bland without using the drained off milk from poaching the fish. I added a small nob of garlic butter to the sauce for extra flavour (it came with the smoked haddock so seemed a shame to waste it!) These ingredients made a huge portion - could probably stretch to serving 6 (although we did just have 4 large portions because it was so good!). Me and my partner had this over 2 evenings. I prepped it and cooked it on the same day and we ate half, then refrigerated the rest and had this the next day. Cooked for 30mins the first time and 40 the next because the mash had gone hard in the fridge it needed longer to heat through the second time.
I used cod loin and smoked haddock fillets. Left out the parsley and the bay leaves but included everything else.

lizleicester

1st May, 2017

5.05

Tried making this with unsweetened almond milk and soya margerine so that it was dairy free and the result was delicious (in fact you couldn't tell it had milk substitutes with all the lovely fish flavours).

Made this last week me and hubby loved it!!! Will add more veg in next time as others have mentioned. But so tasty!! Xxxxx

mortony

6th Dec, 2016

5.05

Wow, this was the best fish pie I've ever made and will be a firm favourite when I have non-meat eaters over for dinner. Using the poaching milk for the sauce makes it delicious.
I made it with white fish/salmon, peas and small cubes of carrots (included in the poaching stage). 1/2 teaspoon of mustard power, dried dill and some chopped spinach into the sauce.
This is a really huge dish and I'd say that it is six healthy portions, rather than the 4 stated in the recipe. I also made it slightly lower calorie by using semi-skimmed milk, reducing the butter in the potatoes from 50->25g and cheddar from 50->25g. All of this brings it down to around 460 calories a portion for the 6 portions.

faceman77

6th Nov, 2016

3.8

A nice tasting fish pie. I added mustard to the sauce as suggested by others and that worked very well. The sauce itself was too thick, I think the quantities are slightly wrong. You need more milk or less butter and flour. That's my only issue with the dish, otherwise would recommend.

Sarahe97

30th Aug, 2016

5.05

Fish pie tasted amazing. I added squeezed lemon and 1 tsp of mustard powder to give it more flavour :)

Pages

Peas, sweetcorn, French beans or broccoli all go really well with fish pie - enjoy!

TeaTimeWithLucy

28th Jul, 2017

5.05

Any tips for lump-free mash?

goodfoodteam

31st Jul, 2017

Putting the potato through a ricer or mouli grater produces really smooth mash. Make sure you cook the potatoes sufficiently too as undercooked bits of potato will always be hard to mash. Hope that helps.

Raisin and Dates

17th Oct, 2016

hi there, made this a few times and it is delicious...
making it again today and like to read the reviews, but noticed that a lot of them are repeats of the same ppl which is a bit annoying as it ups the reviews ????

goodfoodteam

31st Oct, 2016

Thanks for your comment and we're happy to hear you've been enjoying the recipe. Sometimes people leave more than one comment or they comment, realise they've forgotten to rate and so do this separately. Is this what you mean? If not, let us know if there's something we haven't spotted and we'll take a look. Thanks!

Pennyred

22nd Nov, 2015

At what point do you add the parsley - and do you remove the onion completely after poaching the fish or does it go into the pie filling?

goodfoodteam

10th Dec, 2015

The onion is for flavouring and doesn't get used in the pie. The parsley can be added to the sauce after flavouring it with the nutmeg.

Invermarnoch

8th Oct, 2014

I do understand why salamisausage advises against using salt. And I agree that when making a fish pie using cheese and smoked haddock (which is soaked in brine before smoking) there is no need to add salt, which is a recognised contributor to hypertension. In this connection I am given to understand that bananas provide a potassium ion which will displace the more harmful sodium ion in the body. Do the nutritionists agree, please? For my own part, I think it essential to add salt when cooking shellfish like prawns, scampi, shrimps or lobster. These are usually cooked in water, and this process extracts through osmosis the naturally-occurring salt in their bodies. IMHO, to preserve the original flavour, the addition of salt to the cooking medium is essential. I believe the same to be true of migratory fish such as salmon, sea-trout, eels (now protected!), lampreys and shad which alter their cell structure upon entering fresh water from the sea. But it would be very informative to hear from a nutritionist or other scientist in this regard. But to return to the point, especially when making fish pie for children or the elderly, be very careful about the salt occurring in cheese and smoked fish, and certainly do not add any. A little smoked fish goes a very long way. I like to add mustard and anchovy essence to fish pie. They too contain some salt, so I am going to experiment with soaking smoked fish in water before use, and see what the outcome might be. Cooking is always about experimentation and putting one's own stamp on a conventional dish, IMHO.

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